3D-Printed All-Weather Long-Endurance Drone

DoD drone operations, such as time-critical surveillance and reconnaissance or when lives or personnel are at risk cannot wait for calm, fair weather. State of art drones cannot operate safely and reliably in some DoD theaters where rainy, foggy, humid, or windy weather conditions prevail. Ingression of water/moisture into drone electronics and motors will negatively impact the performance of the drone. Moreover, domestic drones, such as those in DIU’s “Blue UAS Cleared Drone List”, are often expensive, short of a robust domestic supply chain, with limited flight endurance (<90 min). To that end, Ultool, LLC will leverage two previously developed technologies that enable the development of an all-weather drone and develop a strategy for autonomous long-endurance flights of drones. To capture this pent-up demand across DoD for all-weather long-endurance drones, the Team will employ 3D printing process to reduce the cost and insource the drone components and software to be compliant with NDAA and Executive Order 13981.